The Passing Doctor
by Toadsie
Summary: The Doctor meets Doc Scratch after implied misc. adventures in Beta session. Other context: is separated from companion, and somehow relocates to Felt mansion in order to discover her whereabouts. Either 10 or 11 would work.


After he had stepped out of the TARDIS, the Doctor found himself in a strange, green-lit interior, reminiscent of Victorian design. Immediately the crackling sound of a record player drifted down the hall to the Doctors attention. He heard low-quality whispers of music stuck in an unfortunate skip.

The Doctor approached the room in which the record-player was inevitably situated. As he did so, a loud ripping noise was heard, evidence of someone removing the record from under the under the needle. Peeking his head around the door-frame, The Doctor spied a slight figure, only about four feet tall, taking the record from the the player and sliding it into it's case, gingerly. The man wore a white suit and had, what appeared to be, a white sphere for a head. A dark mahogany table, well adorned, and accompanied by some chairs, stood in between the doctor and the mysterious being. Though the man hadn't turned, he seemed to have noticed the intruder's presence in the door frame.

"Come on in... Doctor. Have a seat," The fellow said, placing another record on the player and setting the needle down, "we have much to discuss."

The Doctor smiled, delighted by the genial attitude exhibited by the stranger, "Oh! Alright.." He shuffled into the room and found himself a seat at the table. After a moment, during which the record began playing soft jazz, the white-globe-headed man approached the table and asked the Doctor if he wanted some tea.

"Why, thank you," he smiled, as the excellent host leaned across the table and poured his guest a cup of fine, brown, liquid. He began to pour another cup for himself, strangely, for the globe-headed gentleman had no mouth, or any facial features for that matter. Nonetheless, he took a seat across from the Doctor, grasping the cup in his white-gloved hands.

"I've been watching you, Doctor," The man said, pouring a spoonful of sugar into his tea and stirring it quietly.

The Doctor furrowed his brow, "have you?" he asked, "is that how you know my name?"

"That is the only way, it seems," The globe-headed man said. He pulled his spoon out of his tea and dabbed it on a napkin on the table, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Scratch. Doc Scratch."

The Doctor smiled, and took a sip of the tea, "Ah, fellow Doctors, I see."

"Indeed. We could be doctors of very different fields, or perhaps, very similar," Doc Scratch paused, "Who knows."

The Doctor smiled and stared understandingly at the expressionless being. He waited for Scratch to ask why he was here- to inquire his sudden appearance in what the Doctor assumed to be the odd fellow's home. No inquiry was initiated. Instead, the Doctor rose his voice.

"You see, I'm actually looking for someone," he said.

"I know," Doc Scratch said. "Someone _else_ who is not supposed to be here."

The Doctor shook his head, "That's always the case, isn't it. We're never where we ought to be," he smiled, energetically.

"Oh but you see, I can't quite figure it out." Doc Scratch said, he leaned forward, planting his elbows on the table and folding his white-gloved hands together. "I haven't the faintest clue who you are."

The Doctor stared at him, mouth slightly agape, "Figure that. I don't quite know who you are either," his statement ended in a smile. Which slowly faded as Doc Scratch spoke again.

"That's fine. No one else really knows either," he dipped his head slightly and lifted one palm in acknowledgment, "You however.. Are a mystery as well. Not only that, but I am hidden to the extent at which you may disrupt my plans. And so I wonder," Doc Scratch paused, piano music echoing from the record player in the space between words, "could you and your companion be, perhaps... A problem?"

The Doctor put his tea down on the table, and tilted his head slowly, staring at the empty-faced being with new suspicion, "Oh?" he simply said. Scratch retracted his arms from the table and casually began to spoon more sugar into his cup of tea, which still hadn't been touched.

He spoke as he stirred the surely over-sweetened tea, "You're not a part of this session, " he began. "We already have a Doctor. Several, in fact. Clever aliens with quirky personalities are also quite common, and all accounted for, here. And," Scratch sighed and nodded his head, "we have our heroes of time, but, again, you are none of them. There is even a sort of.. lord.. of time, but that, I can also assure, is not you, my friend."

The Doctor tilted his head in confusion, he opened his mouth to say something, but Doc Scratch cut him off in a gesture, whilst wiping the spoon on his napkin again, "Yes, yes, I know, none of this is applicable to you in the faintest. Frankly, I don't believe that there's any room for you in this existence. I only wonder if we can fix that."

Curiously, he began to shove the tea to the side, after never having sipped a bit. Scratch clasped his hands together in front of him and looked at the doctor. "Your face tells me that you're rather disconcerted. Regardless, I must inquire your intentions for coming here, or rather," Scratch suddenly leaned forward slightly, "what it is exactly that you are doing!" He said quite tersely.

The Doctor twitched his lip in a faint snarl, studying the mysterious host, "Just passing through."

Doc Scratch leaned back again and swiftly tightened his bow tie once, "Excuse my outburst, but I may only wonder, as I saw you, and your companions, swatting monsters, relaying messages, and participating eagerly in my well-engineered train of events. You can't possibly be simply _passing through_. You are active, meddling, beings. Ones that simply cannot be had here in this story, nor in any of it's instances."

Doc Scratch's tone was unsettling. The Doctor glared, recognizing his implied hostility.

"You can't save them" he said, the slow jazz played quietly between the two, "I don't care how old you are- The cards have already been dealt, long ago, in a place that hasn't happened yet. And I suggest you leave before I deal you an unhappy card, too."


End file.
